Police officers work at a site of a shopping mall damaged during Russian missile and drone strikes in Dnipro, Ukraine, on July 3.Mykola Synelnykov/Reuters
A Russian missile and drone strike killed at least five people and wounded 53 in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Wednesday, and President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the West to supply more air defences and long-range weapons.
Footage filmed by a scared onlooker and published by Zelensky on his Telegram messaging app showed a large explosion in the sky followed by a fireball shooting off towards the ground.
“Inside, everything is damaged, outside everything is also damaged. I’ve got jitters on my body, my hands … it’s all very complicated and scary,” Olha, the manager of a cafe that was hit, told Reuters.
She said some of her staff had been wounded and were concussed.
Georgyi, an elderly man with a bandaged nose and bloodied face, told Reuters: “There was such a strong explosion that the wave hit me and I fell.”
At least four of the 53 wounded remained in severe condition, local authorities said.
Russia denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure. Thousands of civilians have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“This Russian terror can only be stopped by modern air defences and our long-ranged weapons,” Zelensky said. “The world can protect lives, and only the decisiveness of leaders is needed.”
Borys Filatov, the city’s mayor, announced a day of mourning for Thursday. He said on Telegram that the attack damaged kindergartens, schools and hospitals and caused fires across the city. Commercial buildings were also damaged, officials said.
“The morning has not been good for us. The enemy launched a combined attack on our city,” Serhiy Lysak, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said.
At least 11 people had been taken to hospital and two were in grave condition, Lysak said.
He published pictures of emergency workers clearing shattered glass and extinguishing fires.
The Ukrainian Air Force said the Russian forces targeted the Dnipropetrovsk region with seven missiles and five Shahed drones. Air defences were able to shoot down five missiles and all the drones, it said.
Russia has intensified aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent months as its forces have tried to advance. It has targeted power facilities in particular, causing widespread blackouts.
In Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region on Wednesday, a series of Russian strikes killed one person and injured at least 14, local authorities said.
In the afternoon, Russia dropped guided UMPB D-30 bombs on the regional capital, Kharkiv regional prosecutors said on Telegram.
At least eight people were injured, they added, including an 8-year-old boy. The attack damaged private houses, residential buildings, a postal department and a car repair service.
An early morning attack killed one person and wounded two more in the village of Borova, they said. Ten homes, stores, and an administrative building were damaged, they added.
In the village of Ruska Lozova, two people were wounded and 10 homes damaged in a strike in the early hours that used two S-400 missiles, prosecutors said citing preliminary information.
Later in the day, two guided bombs injured two people in the village, setting five buildings on fire and destroying nine private houses, local police said.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, and the surrounding region have long been intensively targeted by Russian attacks.
Russia denies targeting civilians since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 but thousands of people have been killed and injured.
Governor Oleh Syniehubov said in June that attacks near the village of Borova had intensified as Russian forces sought to probe weaknesses in the Ukrainian defences.
Russia pressed its ground assault into the north of the Kharkiv region in May, opening a new front in the 28-month war.